Croatia V Nigeria Betting Preview Predictions And Tips

Group D is looking like the dreaded ‘Group Of Death’ at this summer’s World Cup as Argentina, Iceland, Croatia and Nigeria are all in the mix, and we fancy Croatia’s experience could prove to be the difference when they take on Nigeria in Saturday night’s match at the Kaliningrad Stadium. Could the Croatians be ‘dark horses’ as far as the World Cup winner odds are concerned? We discuss in our match preview…

Croatia v Nigeria Match Odds

Croatia could only finish second to Iceland in their qualifying group, but they thrashed Greece 4-1 in a play-off to book their place at these finals in Russia. They don’t have a great World Cup record though as they haven’t gone beyond the group stage since finishing third at World Cup ’98, winning only two games at three subsequent tournaments.

The Croatians can take confidence from their run to the last-sixteen at Euro 2016, where they were unfortunate to lose to eventual champions Portugal, and they are 4/6 favourites for victory on Saturday – according to the latest Croatia v Nigeria Odds.

Nigeria technically went unbeaten through qualifying, albeit their 1-1 draw with Algeria was changed to a 3-0 defeat after it was found that they had fielded an ineligible player. They will hope that there are no such mix-ups in Russia as they bid to follow up on their run to the last-sixteen during the World Cup in Brazil four years ago.

Croatia v Nigeria Betting Tip

The worry for an inexperienced Nigeria side is that they have won just one of six internationals going into this tournament and they looked a very limited team when losing to England in a recent friendly.

It is the experience of Croatia that could prove to be the difference and the European team are very well organised, with 10 of their 12 qualifiers featuring under 2.5 goals. With that in mind, under 2.5 goals is an attractive bet for odds-on backers – 8/13 with Betfred.

Goals might be hard to come by as Mario Mandzukic is on the wane, scoring just 12 goals in his last two seasons with Juventus in Serie A, and the Leicester flop Andrej Kramaric is the other option up front for Croatia.

However, the midfield triumvirate of Ivan Rakitic, Luka Modric and Ivan Perisic should provide enough chances for Croatia to nick a valuable win on Saturday, with the Croatia win and under 2.5 goals combined a very attractive bet at 23/10 with Betway.